The Writing and Photography Blog of Kevin J Sabo

Writing Prompt

She opened her apartment door to hundreds of Roses. She knew they were from him; he had found her. 

She stifled back tears as she reached for the phone in her purse. As she was dialing the emergency number, her phone rang. It was an unknown number. Her heart leapt in her chest. It stopped ringing, then started again almost immediately. She fought back tears. She answered.  “Did you miss me?” He asked. It was him. She hung up the phone as the tears began to run freely. She dropped the phone and ran to the bedroom where her emergency bag was packed.  She knew this day was coming.

He was relentless in his “love” of her. 3 continents, 7 countries, and over a dozen communities in the last five years. Not to mention the multiple restraining orders which he repeatedly ignored.

He had cost her everything in his quest to make her his bride. Two past boyfriends had died under “mysterious” circumstances, another been arrested on child pornography and drug use charges that he denied adamantly he had anything to do with. She had been forced to go into hiding, and cut off all contact with her family and friends.

She knew in her heart that the voice on the phone was his. Damien. Her mentally unstable ex-boyfriend whom she dated in university. When his controlling ways became too much to bear, she tried to leave him, and he has dogged her every step of the way. She knew he was smart, but how had she slipped up this time? She was using fake ID under an assumed name in a backwater part of Alberta, Canada. She had not used any documents with her real name in months.

“It doesn’t matter how.” She told herself, composing herself. ” This needs to end, before anyone else gets hurt.”

As she grabbed her emergency bag from under her bed, her cell phone started ringing again. Same unknown number. “Damn it Damien was smart.” She thought to herself. Everywhere she had run to, it was always the same. The flowers. The phone calls. She had tried getting them traced the first few times, but he was somehow always able to block the trail.

She stepped on the phone, breaking it’s circuit board, causing it to instantly stop ringing. She grabbed a jacket out of the closet, put it on, and abandoned the apartment, carrying only her emergency bag. It contained more than enough money to start over again as well as several more “clean” ID’s that she hadn’t used before, as well as several more stashed in various parts of the world. This was getting expensive.

She began her escape plan, the one she had set up for every place that she had moved to recently. She knew it was only time until she needed it.  She would escape again. She would regroup. Then she would plan her retribution. This would end.

She had made it a block from her house, on her way to where she had a vehicle parked. He was standing in front of a Jeep, with a gun in his hand, and a smile on his face. “Lisa, get in. We have so much to catch up on.”